Getting back into the Swing of Things

 I have been an away from fun Amateur Radio for a year or so.  I was doing a lot with Army MARS and SHARES. While I had a lot of fun and learned A LOT of good things, it was time to get back to my roots.  

A few months back I got an IC-7300MK2 with the MARS Mod.  I typically use the 7300 as a Field/Portable radio.  Yesterday, I hooked it up at home and thought I would give the CW decoder a try.  I was impressed! It works quite well, not as well as the human ear, but pretty darn good.  Since I had the radio turned on I gave the dial a spin and started listen to CW to see how well I can copy. Not too bad, I could tell I was rusty and couldn't quite keep up with the faster speeds.  When in practice, I could copy POTA exchanges up to 25 and sometimes higher wpm.  Conversational CW was a bit slower at around 18-20 wpm.

I didn't feel so bad and thought with some practice I thought I could get myself back up to speed.  To push the process along, I planned a couple of POTA trips to help "encourage" me.  When activating, I run either CW or FT8 depending on band conditions. What makes CW nice is it is pretty simple. Key (paddles), radio, antenna, battery, pen and paper.  Many people run QRP (less than 5 watts); however, I normally like to run about 20 watts which is plenty. 

I did find myself at a bit of a conundrum. Straight key or Iambic.  I have been a "squeeze" keyer since the beginning. I have a couple of straight keys, my favorites being sideswiper or cootie types.  The problem I run into with this old brain of mine is going back and forth between straight and iambic keying. Trying to squeeze a straight key or sideswipe paddles makes some ridiculous characters.  I have to take additional time to retrain myself when going back and forth. And somewhere deep inside I have a need for speed.  Straight keying, I top out at about 20 wpm and still be legible. Iambic, I am usually in the 20-22 wpm range and have gone as high as 25 wpm sending.  

I am making the journey back, one character at a time, one QSO at a time.  A short term goal is to get myself back up to my old speed and a longer range goal would be to get above 25 wpm. Maybe I'll get brave and sign up for a CWops Advanced course. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there (especially all the mom CW ops).  The fist that rocks the cradle is the fist that rules the bands :).

Best wishes es 73 de Scott